Paragraphing for the Reader

Rick Eden; Ruth Mitchell

doi:10.2307/357912

College Composition and Communication Dec 1986

Paragraphing for the Reader

Rick Eden ; Ruth Mitchell

Abstract

The teaching of paragraphs needs a revolution. Classroom instruction offers patterns and precepts which cannot be applied to the ordinary process of writing and which, moreover, are unsupported by current resg arch. Researchers English like Braddock, Meade and Ellis, and Knoblauch report findings which directly contradict the textbooks' platitudes:' paragraphs admired professional writing do not necessarily contain topic sentences, they rarely follow prescribed patterns, and they seem essentially accidental, invented as the writer composes. We have found that textbooks do not heed these warnings. Students perceive a strange disjunction between the paragraphs they read and those they are asked to write class. Too often the latter are miniature five-element themes-introductory and concluding sentences, with three intervening sentences connected by therefore and in addition. We believe that paragraphing is best presented to student writers as an important signaling system, based on signals of two sorts, visual and substantive. To readers, the strip of indented white space separating paragraphs indicates both connection and discontinuity. It heightens their attention. To the writer, marking paragraphs offers opportunity for manipulating the reader's focus. Strategically paragraphed prose not only streamlines a message but also molds and shapes it to achieve the writer's purpose. We shall argue for a reader-oriented theory of the paragraph.2 In order to paragraph effectively, a writer needs to know, not the five, ten, fifteen, or twenty most common paragraph patterns that current theories enumerate, but how indentions affect the reader's perception of prose discourse. Knowing how readers perceive prose, the writer can arrange his text to mesh with their perception. Our argument proposes (and, we hope, proves) two main theses: 1. Paragraphs depend for their effectiveness on the exploitation of psycho-

Journal: College Composition and Communication
Published: 1986-12-01
DOI: 10.2307/357912
CompPile: Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access: Closed
Topics: discourse analysis teacher development professional writing affect and writing
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Cited by in this index (1)

SCHRIVER (1992)

Teaching Writers to Anticipate Readers' Needs: A Classroom-Evaluated Pedagogy

Written Communication

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Paragraphing for the Reader

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